Downeast Schoolhouse » false hopes

Against College

admin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:00:47 +0000

Matthew Crawford has written a piece called The Case for Working With Your Hands that is making quite a splash these days. It’s the cat’s-paw, if you will, for his just-published book Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work.

In it he makes the case for the importance, the worth and dignity [...]

Alien Idea Autopsy!

admin — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:00:01 +0000

Brian Hubbell at MDISchools.net has published Gordon Donaldson’s Report Card on School District Reorganization in Maine. Read it and weep!

Thoughts on Reform and Archeology

admin — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:27:57 +0000

Apropos of this week’s announcement of another high school reform initiative:

The glancing impact of their lavish and ambitious ventures is no surprise to analysts…who, while cautiously optimistic about U.S. schools improving, insist that “educational reformers fail to give due weight to the resilience of schools as institutions.” What they term the “grammar of schooling” [...]

Consolidation: 12 Plans Win, 5 Lose, 1 Up in the Air

admin — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:05:04 +0000

From the MDOE press release:

Plans approved by voters (11/4/08):

SAD 34 (Belfast)/SAD 56 (Searsport) Mount Desert Island, surrounding communities SAD 21 (Dixfield) / SAD 43 (Rumford) /SAD 39 (Buckfield)/ Hanover SAD 5 (Rockland) / SAD 50 (Thomaston) Windham/Raymond SAD 47 (Oakland) /China Freeport/Pownal/Durham Wiscasset area Saco/OOB/Dayton Poland/Minot/Mechanic Falls SAD 71 (Kennebunk)/Arundel SAD 38 (Etna) /SAD 48 (Newport)

Plan approved by voters; final result awaiting additional voting:

SAD 37 (Harrington), [...]

The Commissioner Votes…

admin — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:00:45 +0000

in favor of school consolidation!

This may be a season of surprises, but this particular declaration, released on Friday, isn’t one of them. Excerpts follow:

It is now no longer up to me or the Governor, or the Legislature to make the case for reorganization. The case has to be made locally – by planning committees, school [...]

Reorganization Watchdogs: Update

admin — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:00:13 +0000

The MDI folks are on reorganization like a dog on a bone.

At their excellent web site, they stay up to date on everything happening in the State concerning reorganization.

Thursday the MDOE issued a new status report. The MDI folks have created a map and a table representing the data in useful ways.

Girls around [...]

Savings from Consolidation

admin — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:00:04 +0000

As we come down to it, the money…isn’t there!

It isn’t there in a couple of ways.

First, the State is not delivering the “savings” back to the districts. The greybeards among us might recall that way back in, say, ought six, this was the very reason for “administrative consolidation.” But now the savings, where are they? [...]